The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced yesterday which counties that were awarded funding for electric school buses (ESB) under the 2023-24 clean school bus rebate program. Four counties in GA are getting a total of 61 buses! The counties are Baldwin (6 ESB), Clayton (25 ESB), Douglas (25 ESB), and Jeff Davis (5 ESB). Clayton has previously been awarded 25 and 50 ESB, so now they will be up to 100 electric school buses!
This is so good for student health and well-being. Diesel school buses make lots of air pollution, including fine particles (PM2.5), nitrogen oxides (NOx or NO2), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that include over 40 chemicals that are known carcinogens. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC, a division of the World Health Organization) classifies diesel exhaust as a known carcinogen.
Studies show that students’ lungs grow better, they have better aerobic capacity, and they do better in school when they have less exposure to health-damaging air pollution.
Congrats to these 4 counties, now Georgia has 22 counties with 344 electric school buses either operating or on the way!
(Note: We do not think propane is a clean fuel, it is made from fracked gas and has all the human health damage from the fracking wells, refining, pipelines and compressors, and being burned. It as not as bad as diesel, but it is not clean and definitely makes greenhouse gases.)
05/30/2024 AKMB
